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MB: But, I really think extractors are overrated. Crush and drain isn't that bad of a method, is much cheaper and about the same amount of work.
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Micheal could you explain the crush and drain method. I have not purchased an extractor yet (My wifes birhtday is coming up, maybe Bill would like to buy MY wife an extractor ), and if this method is easier, cheaper, and works as well I might consider it for the first year honey harvest. I should add that all my foundation is plastic with wax coating.

After they drain, I put all the cappings/combs in either a heat controled appliance (a turkey roaster that I use for wax) or in a pot in the oven with the oven on low (like less than 200 degrees or so) and wait for it to melt. The wax is on the top and the honey on the bottom. Just let it get hard again to seperate it.
The resultant honey isn't that great because of the heat so I feed it to the bees.

Personally I use some #8 hardware cloth and some nylon screen door screen for the straining and I use the blocks to keep the Screens separate so the honey can flow better. The coarse hardware cloth gets the big chunks, the screen door screen gets the finer parts and any wax that gets through will rise to the top over time and can be skimmed off.

Nice white wax with no chemicals is worth something. Old yellow wax isn't worth as much. Because of the cost of shipping it, it's probably better to find someone local or someone who wants chemically clean wax as a market. You can make candles and sell them. 100 % beeswax candles are worth quite a bit.

Lately I've needed more wax than I get because I've been wax coating permacomb and want clean wax (no chemicals), so I haven't needed to sell any.

I crush and drain my honey off of Pierco frames. I scrape ALL the wax off, and after the honey drains off I put the wax (with a little honey left) in a mixer. I whip the wax up into little pieces and then smear them back onto the plastic frames. If this is done during any nectar flow, the bees will build the comb right back out the next day.

I prefer scrape-and-drain since it is easy, but mostly because honey won't granulate nearly as quickly as using an extractor. Extractors sling honey and in effect expose honey to lots of oxygen. Try the scrape-and-drain method if you haven't already, and compare granulation time to extracted honey. You'll see a remarkable difference.

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Yes it's a combination of Pierco and Rite Cell in wooden frames. I read the rest of the posts, it sounds easy. Do you need to keep everything warm (80-90 degrees) to help get all the honey? and if so how long does it take to drain?

Obviously it depends a lot of things. After the first bucket full the screen starts to get clogged and you need to clean it to keep things flowing. The warmer it is the faster it flows. I've been known to turn the oven on to heat the kitchen and keep it about 80 or 90 when the rest of the house isn't. But that really only helps if you do it the day before so the supers get warmed up. If the supers aren't warm to start with, they won't heat up very quickly.

I've seen a bucket drain MOST of the honey in 30 minutes or less, but to get the MOST honey out if it you have to wait longer. If you have only a little bit to do and you make a couple of buckets you might be able to get all of it in the buckets and let it drain for a couple of days to waste less.

Thnaks for the info, it sounds like the way to go for me for the first year anyway. Would an uncapping tank and a botteling bucket with strainer do the same thing? If I bring this suggestion to my wife she'll think I'm saving money by not buying the extractor this year, and in reality I will be building up what I need (one of these days she will catch on to me , I used this same theory to get more hives )